Organiks
by Rae Logan
Summary: Three familiar robots find themselves to be organic life suddenly, confusion ensues when they try to sort it out. (Tone subject to change as we go on)
1. Beginning

A hedgehog with blackend fur marred by red streaks exhaled loudly, rubbing two fingers under his earflaps.

His name is Shadow, and he is sitting at a rounded table. Beside him is his teammate and friend, a white bat named Rouge. Across from him is a trio consisting of a large porcupine, another hedgehog, and a small bear. Two of these individuals had some form of familiarity with him, but he couldn't for the life of him recall the third.

"Alright, run that by me again..." He said, frowning, eyes squinted and staring.

The porcupine, who was red, with his limbs black from just above the elbows and knees and below, chest and lower quills, and yellow on the upper part of his head, shrugged nervously. He was at least a good foot or so taller than most of them, which dwarfed the little bear beside him, making him larger than most Mobians.

"I honestly don't know what else to say, Shadow. We just ended up like this, if I had to guess, it was Chaos energy or something." The porcupine fiddled with with the dark metal band around his wrist with his tan digit-like claws. "I'm just as confused as the rest of us, which is really something considering the obvious."

"And these two are with you because..?"

"To be honest, I wasn't sure what else to do. He-" The porcupine gestured to the bear. "- insisted on sticking around, and it really doesn't seem a good idea to leave him over there alone."

He waved a hand to the scruffy blue hedgehog beside him, who was pawing gray fingers at the strings of the dark indigo colored oversized hooded pullover. The hedgehog had yet to really acknowledge anyone, and seemed incredibly fixated on those strings.

"He hasn't exactly spoken since we ended up like this." The porcupine said, shaking his head, appearing to be quite baffled. "I'm starting to wonder if he can even talk at all."

"He didn't really seem to be able to before." The bear chirped. He was orange, and wore an orange bandana that was tied in the back and seemed to resemble fox tails. A diamond shaped red crystal shard hung from a cord around his neck like a pendant, and it glittered in the light as he leaned forward in the chair, hands bracing the seat. "I think his voice is broken."

"You do realize who that is, right?" Shadow looked at the tall porcupine. "Did you forget what-?"

"Shadow, if you kept that kind of attitude towards me, we would have never been on the same team." The larger creature propped his head in his hand to lean into the table, and toss an unamused look. "Did you forget our first impression of each other was us trying to murder the other?"

"You shot first."

"I'm not denying that." The porcupine cracked a small smile. "But, anyway, he's practically harmless."

"I notice the use of 'practically'."

"To be really honest..." The bear added, shrugging. "We're not sure exactly what he can still do, but he hasn't really made much effort to find out himself, either. Not that we would know, though, if he did... He can't exactly tell us."

The silent hedgehog had seemingly grown bored of the strings on his pullover, and slid off his chair to venture around. Shadow made a small movement as if to follow, but the porcupine held his hand up and shook his head.

"He's not going to cause any trouble, I'm sure." He said, watching the quiet one briefly before looking back at the hedgehog and bat in front of him. "So... I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that... Well, I can't exactly live outside anymore."

"... No, I don't suppose-"

"Of course he can't, Shadow!" Rouge spoke up finally, having spent a great deal of the time watching the trio, particularly the tall porcupine, with what seemed to be sparkly eyed admiration. "That shouldn't even have to be a debate, he's our friend! We've got the space!"

"... I was getting to that, Rouge."

"Oh. Well..." A pinkish tint flared up around her cheeks. "Can you blame me? You're so hard to read, sometimes."

"Surely not so much that you'd actually think I'd say 'No' to that?" Shadow frowned. "C'mon, how long have both of you known me?"

Rouge nudged him almost playfully.

"Enough to know that you don't like change."

"You honestly expect me to not have any problems trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing?" Shadow pushed her elbow away and raised an eyebrow. "How can you be so calm about this? For all we know, there could have been side effects or-"

"But look at him!" Rouge was clearly far from concerned, and her eyes were almost sparkling with excitement enough to make Shadow flinch back from confusion. "Think of all the new and exciting things he's going to get to experience for the first time!"

"Whoa, hey, hold on!" The porcupine waved his hands in front of him. "I'm siding a bit with Shadow here; we have no idea what to expect in the long run. I think we should figure out what we're going to do about this before we start deciding what to do for fun!"

Shadow was about to agree before a loud **CRASH!** was heard from the living room. The four present quickly made thier way to the doorway and found the likely source of the noise.

The quiet hedgehog was standing inches from an overturned decorative table, and a Terra Cotta pot that had housed a fuzzy, bloomed catcus. The potted plant lay scattered on the floor, with damp dirt and the uprooted cactus, while the culprit stood there holding his wrist tightly, the palm of the hand and the fingers in question embedded with little, thin, spiked needles.

Perhaps most unusual was that his expression didn't seem to reflect that it was painful, or much anything else for that matter, despite the repeated twitching of the hurt hand. Perhaps a bit stunned, or even mild curiosity, but his facial features remained the same as they had been when he pawed at the strings of his pullover.

"Emmett!" The small bear said loudly, pushing past the group to hurry to the now named hedgehog. "You don't just grab cactuses, they have spikes for a reason!"

Emmett shrugged as the bear reached up and pulled his hand lower to be level with him.

"That's a lot of thorns, what do you do? Wrap your whole hand around it?"

Emmett looked up at the ceiling instead of responding.

"Can we borrow some tweezers?" The bear turned and asked Rouge. "Sorry about the mess, I think he probably just wanted to know what it was."

* * *

It took a combined effort on everyone's part to remove the needles and clean Emmett's hand, as he immediately began thrashing the moment his hand was held down. It didn't seem he did so because of the pain of the needles be extracted, but rather that his arm was restrained.

If there had been any question as to whether or not he could speak, this incident seemed to confirm it, as he had tried to shout, but he managed a quiet garbled mess of frantic vocalizations as he reached his free hand up to pry the other one loose.

The bear, who quickly introduced himself as "Owen" among the chaos, caught the free hand with both of his, standing on his toes to keep a hold on it.

"Emmett, Emmett! If you do that, it might break one of them off and it'll hurt more!"

"... Is his name really 'Emmett'?" Shadow asked, spreading the hand out flat and upward.

"We've just been calling him that this whole time, he hasn't really said otherwise." The Porcupine shrugged as he caught both arms and held them firmly in place. It was clear he was decently strong for his size, and Emmett's flailing did nothing to move his grip. "He responds to it, mostly, so I guess he doesn't mind. Owen was the one who thought it up."

"I picked out mine, too." Owen chimed in, having let go of Emmett's arm when he was no longer needed.

"And how about you?" Shadow addressed the Porcupine. "What one did you get?"

"I kept mine, I liked it."

The needles were carefully pulled from Emmett's palm, and disinfectant was used on the resulting punctures, met with more protesting before the hand was finally wrapped with ointment coated bandages.

Emmett quickly quieted down once he was released, and he dropped to the floor to sit and begin gnawing meticulously at the wrapping, as if he merely didn't like the sensation of applied pressure around his entire hand.

Certainly, Emmett was an odd one.

Owen reached out and pushed the hand from Emmett's teeth, which the hedgehog didn't protest to, and said: "Keep that on, it'll keep it from hurting worse."

Emmett blinked, and Shadow took note that this was perhaps the first time since the trio had arrived, that Emmett had made eye contact with anyone. Then Emmett smiled at Owen, with such familiarity, it was if he hadn't been so distant to them all this entire time.

Indeed, Emmett was an odd one.

He stood and grabbed the pudgy little bear under the arms, holding him up like a bean filled plush toy. Owen's legs kicked briefly before he just gave up and hung there.

"You gonna not bite those things, right?" Owen said, not sounding too fazed. "We'd hate it if you let that get infected."

Emmett walked away with Owen still in tow, down the hallway, and towards the garage/laundry room. He stared at the door before turning away and stepping further down the hall, and stopping to stare at the door of the single bedroom at the far end. He turned around and walked back to the living room, stepped over the overturned cactus, and sat on the couch, setting the bear in front of him, and pressing his face into the top of Owen's head.

As if he belonged there.

Shadow exchanged a glance with the Porcupine, raising an eyebrow.

"... He sure is a strange one, Omega."

"Honestly, that's the most active I've seen him so far."

* * *

Q"Rouge, c'mon, am I the only one who has some severe questions about all this?" Shadow said quietly, leaning on the wall outside the door. "I mean, I know Chaos Energy can do some crazy things, but causing three robots to turn into organic life, at once, seems a bit of a stretch at how simple they make that sound."

Rouge spat toothpaste into the sink and prodded the points of her sharper teeth carefully before reaching for the mouthwash.

"Honestly, after the stuff we've seen, and you find that completely unbelievable?"

"Yes!" Shadow kept the same tone as he tossed his hands in the air. "They can't even give us an explanation as to how that can even be possible! I want answers!"

"Keep that up, and they'll overhear you." Rouge said after finishing with the mouthwash, not even really looking at Shadow, but appearing somewhat sarcastic.

"Good!" Shadow said loudly, stepping away from the wall before jumping back a bit, quills bristled and ears straight up as he cursed under his breath.

Owen was standing there staring at him, hands held up in front of himself in mild surprise, as if the reaction had caught him off guard as well. Shadow took note that the small bear had yet to actually close his mouth since arriving, as if his teeth were a bit too big for it, but at least the oddly large grin was considerably smaller.

"S-sorry, I didn't think I was that quiet..." Owen looked up, reached his hand to the back of his head and rubbed it awkwardly. "... Um, I was just wanting to say 'Thanks' for letting us stay here."

Shadow blinked.

"... How long have you been standing there..?"

"Dunno." Owen shrugged. "Maybe a few minutes?"

Shadow continued to blink, as if considering that perhaps he had in fact been a bit too loud.

"But, don't worry, I'd be skeptical too if I was in your shoes." Owen dropped his hands to his sides, letting them swing a bit. "We're not planning on tricking you or anything; we're just as confused as you are about this. I've just decided to go with it, and enjoy it while it lasts..."

"While it..?" The hedgehog raised an eyebrow while flashing a glance to Rouge.

"Well, I mean we don't know if this is temporary or what." The bear scratched and shook his head. "Though, I think I've gotten used to having lungs and I've already gotten fond of tasting things."

He laughed as if this amused him, but he quickly stopped with a cough when he was aware of the awkward stares he was receiving. His fingers found the red crystal shard around his neck, and closed around it, giving it a slight tug.

"... I thought I should mention that Emmett doesn't always sleep through the night, by the way." Owen said, stealing a glance behind him. "If you find him walking around after Two in the Morning, he's probably not awake, so don't freak him out. And we've had a few times where he's woken up kinda fighting, so I guess he has nightmares or something..."

"You guess?"

"Well, I mean, he can't exactly confirm it himself, y'know? Makes it kinda hard to tell in the middle of the night 'cause he's pretty quiet." Owen grinned sheepishly and raised a hand in a shrug. "... He's honestly not much trouble at all, he just likes to look at things and hasn't quite gotten the idea of personal space yet."

"You've told us all about him, but you haven't really told us a thing about yourself, kid." Rouge put her toothbrush away in the cabinet and stepped into the hallway.

Owen flinched briefly and continued to touch at the gem around his neck, a tinge of pink flaring up across the bridge of his snout.

"... Not really much to say, I'm in the same boat as the both of them." He looked at the floor and shuffled his feet. "It's just-"

Before he could continue, Rouge grabbed him by the arm carefully as she walked by and made the comment about boiling water for tea.

Shadow was left there to debate whether he should brush his teeth now or follow after them. The latter choice won out, and he stepped to the direction of the kitchen before freezing and becoming hyper aware that a certain dark blue hedgehog was staring at him.

"... Yes?" He said calmly, glancing sidewise at the other, who continued to stare at him, flashing a look of recognition behind the eyes before giving a small smile.

As to what he recognized Shadow from, Shadow could only guess from a handful of reasons, but at the very least, it seemed friendly.

"He must like you, because I haven't really seen him smile much." Omega took note. "In fact, he normally looks distant when he's staring, that I have to wonder what is even going on in that head."

Omega got up from the couch carefully to avoid leaving any quills behind and made to step over to Shadow, only to be stopped by a sudden tug at his tail.

Emmett had grabbed it, prompting Omega to stop immediately to not have the barbed quills tear into the hedgehog's hands.

Emmett gave him a look of mild panic, as if startled that the porcupine was choosing to leave.

"You can come with us, if you want." Omega assured, carefully prying the hands off his spiked tail. "... He doesn't like to be left alone." He told Shadow with a shrug.

Emmett quickly grabbed Omega's wrists and, being smaller than the porcupine, pulled himself towards him as he made the motion to tug. Omega lifted his arms without so much as batting an eye, as if he wasn't much concerned, and Emmett hung on, kicking his feet in the air idlly.

"... See?" Omega said as he set Emmett down carefully.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rouge set down a cup of tea in front of Owen, who stared at it cautiously, watching the steam rise. The bat warned of its temperature, but the bear figured enough from the aforementioned clue. The tea smelled of sweet spices, perhaps a bit of clove and cinnamon, a maybe a hint of citrus peel. Not that Owen knew well enough about those things to identify them yet...

"So, tell me about yourself." She urged gently, sitting down with her own cup.

Owen continued to stare at his steaming cup, closing his mouth completely for perhaps the first time since arriving. He looked up again and grinned nervously.

"... I'm pretty much the same as the both of them. Started out with the Doc, decided that I wanted to do more, and, well, here I am now."

"And that's about the most generalized explanation I've heard." Rouge sipped her tea before setting the cup down and leaning forward, braced by an arm. "Tell me about yourself."

Owen blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected much to be pursued further beyond his explanation, much less be set down to discuss it over tea.

Watching the bat do so before him, he carefully pulled the bag up by the string, pressed a spoon against it and the wall of the cup, and set it aside.

"... Well, you've probably figured that I'm not originally flesh and stuff, but a sentient, um... Robot? Is... Is that a proper term? It seems so, lifeless, I don't think we were really true robots, now that I think about it..." Owen lifted his cup and carefully sniffed it. The sweet scent made him briefly think of how Emmett would enjoy it. He sipped it cautiously, and added after he swallowed: "Honestly, I'm not used to people being civil with me. There's always been a sort of fear or something when they looked at me, so it's actually pretty nice to be able to talk with someone..."

With as calm and polite as he seemed at the moment, it seemed to be so unlikely that was the case. But, as Rouge had come to know, because of her acquaintances over the years, looks were deceiving.

"... I don't think you've heard of me before, since the Doc kinda retired me years ago, long before Omega came around, but I made to resemble one of that one hedgehog's friends. A fox, I think, but I'm sure my outside appearance was just a modified teddy bear with some tails stitched on." Owen shrugged, tapping his fingers against the cup. "I think I took the least time to build, because I was just a basic frame stuffed into a doll, and an external energy source slapped on. I wasn't in action for too long, because I was just an extra for a set of races, and wasn't meant for battle like the others..." He took another sip, and inhaled slow and deeply after swallowing. "It was actually kinda fun, to be honest. But it didn't take long for word to spread that I was some kind of cursed thing that would take souls if I tagged everyone in a certain order, and the rumors kinda spiraled out of control for a while."

He took yet another sip and waited, breathing quietly through his teeth when he finished swallowing.

"... Well, you certainly look a bit like Tails." Rouge said, seemingly missing the point, but that was just her way of breaking the ice.

"On one hand, no one tried to trash me. On the other, no one wanted to get near me." Owen took another, this time longer, sip. "Barring the other robots, of course. Especially Emmett. I like Emmett."

"Any particular reason you call him Emmett? Considering..?"

"Oh, I just thought it was a clever retool. He doesn't mind it, so it's fine."

Rouge blinked, and glanced past the threshold into the living room. Omega seemed to have given up on prying off Emmett, who had his arms wrapped around Omega's left, staring at Shadow, who looked as though he was having a bit of an issue reading him.

"How can you tell..?"

Owen sipped his tea again, now having cooled a bit too much. He finished it off and set the cup down.

"He'd let me know, I'm sure." He said, as if it was an obvious answer, seemingly oblivious to Rouge's confusion.

* * *

It was late, and Emmett was, as far as one could tell, the only one still awake.

He has specifically waited to be the last one up so he could freely browse this house with little interruption. He had recalled seeing a large glass jar of candies that had been placed out of his immediate reach upon request of his short bear acquaintance, and he was determined to get to it.

Emmet didn't speak much, but for good reason. His voice had been, for lack of a better word, "injured" some time ago, so he appeared to be very quiet, when he could, if he wanted to, speak short words under his breath with clarity if one were to really listen.

Speaking louder resulted in little more than unintelligible sounds, which often embarrassed him and he kept his mouth shut for good measure.

He also liked sweets, perhaps too much, and had already more than once suffered significant "sugar crashes" from eating too much sugar in a short time.

Owen had decided after the third incident, to actively limit his intake, but the bear was asleep right now, and Emmett was going to get that jar.

It was simple enough. He could simply push a chair to the long flat surface beside the large metal box that held food, and climb on the surface, and grab the jar from the top of the aforementioned box.

He was clever, he thought, and such a task was far too easy for him, it was almost a crime.

He frowned a little at that thought, staring up at the jar, already having stepped into the room.

It was too easy, surely Owen would have guessed that he'd try for it?

He blinked and weighed the consequences. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to sneak off with the jar, as it would be noticeable if it was missing, and the smaller amount left in it would surely rat him out once found...

He could just leave it be, he supposed, but he was just so very curious about the sort of sweets that existed in this jar.

He pushed a chair to the counter, and made to step on it, before a dull red glow surrounded him like a bubble and blocked him from going further.

He didn't even bother to turn around, knowing full well what was happening.

"I thought you might try that." Owen said, sounding as though he wasn't so much amused as he was more exasperated. "It's barely been a week since the last time, do you really want to get sick again from eating too much of that?"

A low, inaudible grumble escaped Emmett and he threw an annoyed glare at the bear.

"It's two in the morning, go back to sleep, Emmett."

Owen flicked his wrist and the bubble around Emmett dispersed, dropping him to the floor on his rump from a short distance. Emmett rolled his eyes, got up from the floor, brushed himself off and made to climb the chair again, unfazed.

"Emmett." Owen said reprimandingly, catching a wrist before the hedgehog could even get his foot up on the seat of the chair. "That's not even yours to get."

Owen then stepped in front of Emmett and started to nudge him towards the doorway.

"It's late, anyway, you don't need that."

Emmett huffed at him, but followed anyway, still eyeing the jar. Perhaps Owen was right... He'd leave it alone.

For now.


	2. Grin and Bear it

Sorry for the late, late, late update. Who knew that trying to write with an overactive puppy could be so much a problem? Especially when trying to construct an all new story universe? XD

In other news, I recently got back into enjoying Darkwing Duck, which was an old favorite cartoon of my as a kid. Anyway, let's get this chapter going.

* * *

The following morning, the house was shook awake by a loud noise.

Upon getting thier wits about them, Shadow and Rouge were quick to find the source of which was that Emmett apparently fiddled with the dials in the stereo system before switching it on. An eighties rock ballad blasted through the house at an ungodly volume.

"WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE A STEREO?" Shadow shouted over it, trying to find the power plug amongst all the wires to cut the source. "IT'S TWENTY-SEVENTEEN, INVEST IN A PORTABLE PLAYER AND SOME BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS!"

He yanked the plug from the outlet, and turned his attention to the other hedgehog in the now deafening silence. Emmett had his hands to his ear flaps and had what could possibly be a mildly concerned expression, perhaps the most expressive he'd been so far since setting foot in the house. Shadow curbed his annoyance at the possibility of Emmett being dazed from the unexpectedly loud stereo, considering that maybe the incident was a case of curiousity, after all, the chances of Emmett knowing and understanding completely what a full sound system was at the moment was rather slim.

"Oh, wow, that sure is some noise that thing can make there!" Owen leaned behind the stereo with enthusiasm dripping in his voice, stubby tail wiggling excitedly. "You called it a 'stereo', right? I've never seen one of those; they're almost obsolete now with the current tech. Man, how can you keep all those wires from looking like a can of worms?"

Omega was plucking quills out of the couch, as many had detached from him when the stereo went off. He mumbled an awkward, almost inaudible apology, bunching up the extracted ones in his left hand like a bundle. His eyes glanced up and he groaned in exasperation when he saw several quills embedded in the ceiling.

"... Sorry about that, they just kinda shoot everywhere when I tense up, I think." He climbed onto the couch and stood up awkwardly to grab those as well with his long reach. " _... Never had to worry about this before..._ " He said under his breath with a hint annoyance.

Omega then felt a slight tug from his back that almost pulled him off the couch. Countering his balance very quickly, he looked over his shoulder and saw Emmett standing there, holding a couch pillow that sported a fair deal of little pinprick holes. Emmett held it out with a "Mmmn!" noise and let go of it before Omega had a good hold, so it slipped a bit from his claws. Emmett didn't seem concerned and was already looking at the walls, reaching up to straighten an askew picture frame that seemed to agitate him.

Rouge, who had been rendered completely useless until the stereo was shut off, on account of her sensitive bat ears, which she had snatched up a different pillow to muffle the noise until it was off, dropped said pillow on the floor without so much a thought as to where to put it away.

"It's a good thing I own this place, or I'd have to worry about the deposit." She laughed a bit, which was met with mostly blank expressions from the others present, with Shadow probably being the only one who understood the comment, and giving her an unamused look. "Oh, c'mon, don't tell me you boys don't have a sense of humor."

"I got it, it just wasn't really that funny." Shadow shrugged.

"So!" Rouge said loudly with a clip of the hands, quick to change the subject. "I thought maybe we'd all just eat out for breakfast this morning? I wasn't really prepared for three extra people around here, so that's a good excuse to leave the house."

Shadow squinted his eyes at her, knowing full well that it was because the dishwasher was on the fritz and she just didn't want to have to deal with clean up today, as it was her paid vacation (as well as Shadow's, conveniently enough).

Owen pulled away from the back of the stereo.

"... Out? Like, out of the house, outside, out in the real world, out where there's people..?"

"That's the general idea, yes, I did say 'leave the house'. Is something wrong with the idea?"

"Oh, no, no, it's just that... Well..." Owen grinned nervously and scratched the back of his head roughly. "... Emmett doesn't like public places. I think it's that its too much noise and stuff, like he gets overstimutated."

"What do you plan on doing, keep him in the house forever? It's a nice day outside, y'know."

Owen made a low, unenthusiatic groaning noise, and looked back at Emmett, who had stepped back from the frame he was fixing, and looked back at him.

"... He just doesn't like-"

"I'm sorry if this seems rude, but how can you really be sure of what he likes and what he doesn't like?"

"..." Owen froze completely, mouth closed for once, and black eyes wide and staring. He then tossed his hands in the air in exasperation. "I know because I know him better than any of you! We were created on similar hardware in the beginning, and I was made to be complimentary to him before Doc scrapped me! It's my _purpose_ to know him!"

The awkward silence that followed while his hands remained in the air left Owen feeling like a complete idiot while he squinted a little in annoyance.

"... I mean, like, the last time he was able to talk, he kinda went crazy, so..." He mumbled before bringing his hands down, painfully aware that he was at least a good foot or so shorter than most of the people in the room, which, by Mobian standards, was quite significantly.

"That really leaves more questions open." Shadow said bluntly, rolling his eyes.

"And I don't much care for questions." Owen said levelly. "Fine, take him out somewhere, but I tried to warn y'all, he's not exactly acclimated to the hustle and bustle of a city."

* * *

That proved to be true, as Emmett was immediately overwhelmed by the sudden screech of a car alarm that had been triggered by a passing bird losing its grip on a pinecone, and he quickly clamped his hands over his ears and wordlessly screeched back under his breath, an action that might have gone unnoticed save for the obvious noise of heavy breathing coming from him.

To be fair, he hadn't been so close to an alarm before, so his reaction was that of abject fright from having his auditory senses assaulted, and to make it more uncomfortable to him, he didn't much like the bright flashing lights the vehicle was giving off.

He quickly pulled his hood over his head, as if hoping it would cover his ears even more. The shape of his quills were visible through the way the fabric laid, and it was a wonder how he got it over his head so easily.

The car alarm finally chirped off, followed by the distantly yelled apology of the owner from an above window several stories up.

Emmett was still eying the car as they continued walking, Owen giving him a careful push to urge him forward.

"So, Omega..." Rouge said to her now organic long time teammate. "How are you holding up, being alive and all?"

Omega blinked and lifted his eyebrows with a slight widening of the eyes, almost seeming to be mildly offended.

"As long as you've known me, and you ask me how I'm doing being a meatbag?"

"Well excuse me, but you're forgetting that just about everyone you know well enough are 'meatbags', so try a better word to use." Rouge hovered in front of him with her arms crossed, staying a decent distance away as they walked, giving him a "C'mon" look.

"Are you actually scolding me? Wow, that's-" Omega scoffed a laugh, then seemed confused by the noise. "I didn't make that sound on purpose, it just kinda happened."

However, Rogue's eyes lit up.

"Oh, my, I think you finally laughed, Omega!" She smiled. "I thought you'd be the serious one this whole time!"

Omega's quills bristled briefly, involuntarily, and his grayish muzzle gain a bit of an uncomfortable pink tint.

"... Don't."

Deciding not to venture further on the subject out of respect, Rouge instead asked: "So, about... Um... Emmett."

"... Yeah..?"

"... Have you considered... Not saying I'm an expert in this or anything, but have you guys considered that he could be Autistic?"

"... I have no idea what that is." Omega said bluntly and truthfully. "You're going to have to explain that to me."

"Wow, like, usually the context of that alone is enough for most people, I guess I forgot to take into account that you'd probably not know what that is." Rouge smacked a hand to her head in mild embarrassment.

She explained briefly what it was to Omega, particularly how that was comparable to Emmett from what she could tell so far in the short time she'd been observing the odd hedgehog.

"You seem rather knowledgeable in this, it's almost too convenient." Shadow said, having been listening to them.

"My job calls for me to be in contact with all sorts of people, it's just a good idea to know how to handle situations." Rouge shrugged. "But honestly, we can't be totally sure unless we get some professional opinion from a doctor or something."

If Owen had been listening, he didn't give any indication until just now.

"No! No, it's fine, his voice just doesn't work right, is all!" He shouted from up front, still leading Emmett along. "We really don't need someone we've never seen before doing that doctor thing, unless it's really, really important!"

Emmett suddenly sidestepped out of Owen's trajectory, and quickly moved to where Shadow, Rouge and Omega were, eying the small bear carefully. If one didn't know any better, you'd think he was disagreeing with him.

"You can't be certain if something is not important or otherwise." Shadow said.

After some back and forth between Shadow and Owen, it became more clear that the bear wasn't entirely certain what a doctor was, apparently equating the title of his creator, most likely.

Shadow gave up for now.

* * *

Though barely noticeable to most, the faint flickering of the fluorescent lights overhead was distracting to Emmett, perhaps even a bit aggravating. One particular long bulb was struggling to stay on, and it disrupted the otherwise well lit room of the eating establishment, at least to him.

He stared up at it with a bit of a frown, trying to figure out why it was so unnerving to him. Was it the rhythmic buzz-click noise that felt like it was digging into his ears? Or was it that the flickering was straining his eyes? More importantly, why was it more noticeable to him than the low murmuring chatter of the people inside the building?

He tilted his head ever so slightly sideways.

He didn't like it.

His ears flipped back up once he heard someone address him, and he looked at Owen while occasionally looking back up at the light.

Chaos, he wished his voice worked and could be louder than a low tone squeak.

He was dragged over to a table with the rest of the entourage, but honestly, he'd rather explore the building a bit more, particularly the large noisy box in the corner with the flashing lights and all those buttons.

"I honestly have no idea what I should have ordered, thank goodness for samplers." Rouge shrugged.

"... These are tacos." Shadow said, blinking. "It's a fast food taco place, you ordered three boxes of a dozen tacos per box. It's not a sampler, it's taco packs."

"But, there's a variety in there. Did you want something else?"

"No, tacos are fine, I'm just saying-"

A **THUMP** and the sound of tearing cardboard interrupted the conversation, and the bat, the dark hedgehog, the porcupine and the bear looked at the quiet hedgehog almost in unison.

Emmett had reached clear across the table, standing part way on his chair, stretched out across the table surface, and was actively tearing one of the thin cardboard boxes apart to get to the wrapped food without so much as acknowledging anyone. When he looked up, he had about six wrapped tacos clutched in his arms and one with the paper off, shoved halfway in his mouth, him chewing slowly.

"Heh, he... Um... He doesn't exactly know table manners, I guess." Owen shrugged sheepishly, reaching for a taco in Emmett's arms. "... That might be too much, I don't think you should-"

Emmett swatted him away with a barely audible "Hunh!" noise, chewing his food a bit more frantically, shoving a few of those things into the front pocket of his pullover. He slid back into his chair, kicking his feet leisurely while roughly unwrapping another taco, biting it in the middle, pleasantly humming.

He paused on chewing, and looked back at the dimly flickering fluorescent light across the room.

He really didn't like that light.

* * *

It was early Spring, and an overcast sky hung above Westopolis, peppered with gray. Westopolis was a rather wet city this time of year, and many residents were often prepared at moments notice. The residual chill from the long gone Winter coupled with the breeze coming from the coast made it somewhat colder than other cities this time of year, and it was typical to see people wearing Winter scarves and hats clear into the early week of April.

It was currently the tail end of March.

Because of this, Shadow and Rouge knew it was wise to not spend so much time outside of a building this time of year, lest one wanted to be randomly drenched.

A flicker of light twitched periodically across the sky, causing the clouds to glow out of sync with a low rumble.

Emmett had his face pressed up against a cold living room window, staring intently at the sky outside, frowning like he was trying figure something out. The flickering in the sky was very much like the florescent bulb in the food place, the fuzzy glow rhythmically glittering in the dark clouds.

He decided that he didn't like that either.

"Well, since the rain usually knocks out our satellite TV plan for a few hours, I suppose we can just grab a movie or something off the shelf." Rouge had already switched to wearing "house clothes", which were really nothing more than purple sweatpants, pink fuzzy slippers and a T shirt that matched the slippers, adorned with hearts.

Shadow snorted a bit to himself, remembering how he had originally been a bit surprised by how lax Rouge was at home compared to her usual work demeanor... But he'd never get over how silly he found those slippers.

A strike of lightning cracked across the sky and Emmett's reaction was volitile to say the least.

He shoved away from the window with the best shout he could muster, landed on his rump on the floor, then scrambled backwards into the hallway, away from the windows, and into the landing in front of the door off to the side.

Shadow and Rouge looked at Owen for an explanation, but for once, he shrugged.

"Maybe he doesn't like lightning..?"

* * *

"So, what is it we're doing, then?"

Owen looked over the edge of the table, up at Omega.

"C-come again?"

"You seem to have taken charge of the whole thing, like you're the one calling the shots, for what I have no idea." The porcupine sifted his clawed fingers through his quills and plucked a loose one and discarded it in a small pile with a small scoff. "Of any of us, you seem to know more than what you let on. Like you might actually have a clue about what it is that happened."

"... I'd say I'm a bit small to be in charge of anything." Owen had a soda can in his hands and idly swirled its contents with a shake, causing the fizz to audibly bubble.

"I may be technically the youngest of the three of us, but I'm not stupid." Omega opened his eyes with an expression that seemed like he was observing Owen's body language closely. "Don't think I haven't noticed how often you handle that gem around your neck."

Owen reflexively reached for the shard without hesitation.

"S-So? It's mine, I can do whatever I want with it. It's not hurting anybody." Owen sipped the soda, which was a little less fizzy than when he opened it.

"See, the thing is, it looks remarkably like the very gem you had hovering over your head before." Omega stopped preening his quills. "It's strange, but I seem to have vague memories of a gem shard being-"

"Touch it, then." Owen cut across him, so suddenly that Omega flinched involuntarily. Owen slid his fingers along the twine around his neck and pulled it over his head. He bunched the string in his hand, then held it out, letting the shard dangle. "It's just a regular old piece of fancy rock, I just like to have it around. Touch it."

Omega blinked, then squinted suspiciously.

"... Anyone who's ever been around Mobians and thier random artifacts should know not to touch anything that hasn't been calibrated for them." He shook his head. "No, thank you."

"It's just a silly little thing that's important to me, is all. Touch it."

"No, thank you." Omega reiterated.

"Suit yourself." Owen slipped the twine back over his head, and readjusted it on his neckerchief. "I assure you, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. It's just a simple trinket that hold importance only to me."

"... Your continued insistance on the matter makes me believe otherwise." Omega said under his breath as Owen turned to leave.

"... We all deserve to be happy, don't we?" The small bear said in the doorway, stopping for a second. "... It's so nice to be able to smile and actually mean it."

Omega froze, one arm braced on the table, the hand on his other arm still in his quills. He couldn't explain it, but somehow that statement had thrown him for such a loop, he briefly wondered why he was still in the chair.

"... Eh-excuse me?"

"We all deserve to be happy." Owen waved a hand behind himself, then disappeared around the corner when he left the threshold, presumably to go find Emmett.

Omega continued to stare before hastily grabbing the quill pile in front of him and shoving them into the trashcan.

The screen door slammed behind him as he rushed outside to the front of the garage, where Shadow was doing maintenance on the motorbike he used for some of his missions. Gloves off to keep the grease and oil off them, crazy striped quills tied in a rough updo at Rouge's insistence (apparently there had been an incident some time ago, where some of Shadow's quill clumps had gotten tangled in the inner workings, and this was a solution to prevent that again. Shadow refused to even acknowledge the event, and simply glared when Rouge explained to the new trio as to why he was trying his quills up).

"Shadow, do me a favor, will you?"

"... Kinda busy right now."

"Not right away, obviously." Omega huffed through his nose. "But, you have access to certain confiscated files from Eggman's bases, right?"

Shadow paused with turning the ratchet in his hands and slid the rolling dolly he was laying on out from under the raised vehicle.

"... Odd question to ask."

"That doesn't answer it, though."

"Why do you ask?"

" _Do you, or don't you?_ "

"It's not a library, I can't just go into them when I want to." Shadow grabbed a nearby rag and began wiping the grease off his fingers. "I'd need a reason to."

"If you can, search for any information on 'TD-01'."

"You still haven't-"

"Shadow, listen to me. I have the sneaking suspicion that Owen hasn't been completely honest about that shard he has with him." Omega grabbed Shadow by the shoulders. "There is no way that's just some regular gem he just happens to have. There has to be something, anything, that can clue us in."

Shadow blinked, then looked at the hands on his shoulders.

"You could just be paranoid."

"IS THAT WHAT THAT IS?" Omega's voice almost squawked when he raised his tone. "I DON'T LIKE IT EITHER WAY!"

"Look, if I at least say I'll give it a try, can you stop digging those claws in my shoulders? Those are kind of a bit... pokey."

"EVERYTHING ABOUT ME IS POKEY, I'M A PRICKLY SACK OF MEAT!"

"... Porcupine."

Omega blinked.

"Yes, but still."

Shadow did a shrugging movement to slip out of the grip.

"And if I find out something, then what?" He said, folding his arms. "What is it that you expect to make of it?"

"... I... Um..." Omega blinked again. To be perfectly honest, he hadn't exactly thought it out and had merely acted on a suspicious feeling. "... I don't know, I just want to confirm something."

"Being?"

"His gem."

"What of?"

"What exactly is it."

"I'll see what I can do." Shadow said. "Hey, I need to get this off the blocks. I mean, I can lift it with one hand just fine, but that kind of scares the neighbors, help me out?"

* * *

Owen was sitting on the far end of the couch, his small stature appearing more so in comparison to the large size of the furniture. Emmett was holding the remote for the television, continuously pressing the keys, which left the visuals and noise of the screen an incomprehensible mess of colors and blips.

The cub sized bear was half tempted to grab the remote from him and walk him through how to use it, but it was honestly best to let Emmett figure out how to work it on his own, as he had a tendency to force a low, squeaky screech from his presumably damaged vocal cords when one interrupted his exploration of the unknown.

At least Emmett had figured out the basics of volume control, as he left the audio on setting 12 and hadn't touched those buttons since. He was mostly pressing the numbered buttons in some sort of pattern, which was changing the channels constantly. Owen had to wonder if Emmett had a sort of endgame in mind, or if he just like pressing the buttons and getting feedback from the action.

 _Fidget toy..._

Owen had heard of those, yes. They were practically at every market right now, many up front or advertised. In fact, he heard a good deal about those earlier that day when he had opted to join Rouge on a grocery run, sensing that Omega was trying to get him alone for some reason. There had been a kiosk of sorts outside the entrance to the store, with a fair variety of styles of these so called "Fidget Toys".

He wouldn't have thought much of it, if not for overhearing the word "Autistic" from a customer who was explaining that she was purchasing a particular cube shaped device with buttons and switches for her daughter. His ears had perked up at that word again, recalling that Rouge had suspected that Emmett was perhaps one who had that.

"Hey, so, what exactly are these for?" He asked, having only seen them, not in action, but just being sold.

He now had one of the curious contraptions in his fingers and he spun it. A simple ball-bearing widget, but the resistance on the tilt when in motion offered an interesting sensational feedback on the digits.

"Hey, Emmett?"

The hedgehog didn't look at him, and continued to press the buttons on the remote at a rapid pace. Owen sipped his soda, realizing vaguely that it was flat now.

"Yo."

Nothing.

Owen leaned across the couch and waved a hand in front of the hedgehog's eyes. Only then did Emmett acknowledge him, but not without a sour look at being interrupted in his activity.

Owen held out the widget.

"Try this, it's supposed to be therapeutic."

Before he could hand it over, he was grabbed by the neckerchief, and tugged off the couch in a swift movement. He tilted his head back to look up before he could really process what was happening, and found that Omega had his fingers slipped around the scarf, wearing a look of suspicion on his face.

"... Oh, hi." Owen said, grinning even wider than usual, eyes half closed. "Sup?"

"I know you're up to something."

"Really? That's news to me, what am I up to?"

Omega blinked.

"... Um..."

"Please let go of me." Owen said politely, letting his grin subside just a little bit. "You really shouldn't sneak up on someone like that." He pulled himself free with a shrug when Omega stared at him dumbly, readjusted the scarf and twine, then turned around, hands behind his back, looking up. "I don't know what I did to make you so suspicious of me, Omega. I just want us all to get along."

"... You know, the more you say that, the less at ease I feel." Omega said, cringing.

"It's the grin, isn't it? I'm sorry, I can't help it, I can't breathe through my nose very well." Owen held his hands up in another shrug. "I thought you would have noticed by now, we've been hanging out for like a few months."

"..."

"So what are you up to, anyway?" Owen noticed the silence. "Emmett's playing around with the remote, I think he likes the button feedback."

"..?"

"I was just about to give him this spinner thing, maybe we can get the remote so we can use the TV." Owen gestured to the couch before climbing back on it. He picked up his soda can, took another sip, then frowned at it. "Oh, right... This was flat."


End file.
